Drumulator Owners Manual
Suppose you want to record a bass drum on every
quarter note, but your sense of timing is a little shaky.
The upper row of dots in figure B shows where you
might have played the four bass drum beats. The first
one is a little behind the beat, the second a little in front
of the beat, the third right on the beat, and the fourth
slightly behind the beat. The lower row of dots in figure
B shows how setting Auto Correct to eighth note
resolution puts each drum sound on the nearest eighth
note, thereby correcting a not-so-tight bass drum part
for perfect timing.
Now consider figure C, which shows Auto Correct set
to sixteenth note resolution. In this case, the beats you
played have been assigned to the nearest sixteenth
note - which is fine on beats 3 and 4, but not on 1 and
2.
This illustrates an important point:
Use the least amount of resolution needed. If you are
recording a simple snare back beat, there’s no point in
using an Auto Correct setting with any more resolution
than eighth notes. To record something more complex,
set a finer resolution (such as sixteenth or even thirty-
second notes).
You may change Auto Correct at any point by
stopping the Drumulator. Changing Auto
Correct takes the pressure off of recording long
drum parts - use low resolution to record most
of a part, and then switch over to finer
resolution to record more complex rhythms.
Note that recording triplets is easy; since there
are three triplet Auto Correct options, and that
alternating between triplet and non-triplet Auto
Correct modes lets you record complex
polyrhythms.
Another option is
high resolution
mode, where
the Drumulator places beats exactly where you
play them rather than “rounding them off” to the
nearest specified note. This allows syncopation,
beats which slightly lead or lag the rhythm, and
so on.
It may take some time to get used to Auto
Correct, but once you have it mastered, you’ll
find it a powerful feature which lets you create
drum patterns with perfect timing.
2E Setting Auto Correct
To set Auto Correct, the Drumulator must be
stopped
and in
segment
mode.
1. Press
AUTO CORRECT.
The left-hand display
shows
Au
(for Auto), while the right-hand
display will probably show 8. The Drumulator
assumes eighth note Auto Correct when you
first turn it on.
2. When
in
Auto Correct
mode, the Drum Sound
Select buttons become Auto Correct Select
buttons (time setting of the
PERC/DRUMS
switch doesn’t matter). Here are you choices:
Button
Legend
Auto Correct Resolution
Right Display
Reads
8 Eighth
notes
8
8/3 Eighth
note
triplets
.8.
16 Sixteenth
notes
16
16/3
Sixteenth note triplets
.16.
32 Thirty-second
notes
32
32/3 Thirty-second
note
triplets
.32.
